So I saw there was a nice topic going on regarding combating inflation on Lordaeron, which is really nice and interesting to me. Sadly, the topic got zerged by money-maker wanna-bes and got closed at the end of 2015. Either way, I'd like to see what is being done on Lordaeron so far regarding this issue and to give my opinion on the matter.
First of all, I'm a Bachelor in International Economic Relations, so I'm not just pulling words out of my *** or talking about my own self-interest, like the majority of the player base. Alright, so now that we got this thing straight, let's continue...
I'll start with the two options you guys offered: an online lottery, costing in-game gold, and a scheduled gold takeout.
1) The online lottery is an overall good idea, because it sucks gold out of the realm out-and-out. There are two main issues which come to mind thought: first, will the rewards be tempting enough for people to regularly play the lottery; second, will all the rewards be soulbound?
If the rewards aren't good enough (personally, I don't give a flying **** about vanity items in the game, but that's just me), then people will only ever use the lottery if they have more gold than they can spend. Which is not necessarily bad, but it's not very good either, because it limits availability. SOME time ago you mentioned a transmog option for WotLK. Is this being worked on? Would you implement it online for in-game gold? As we all know, transmog was pretty much half of the game on Cataclysm and people went ape-**** crazy about that stuff, returning to old dungeons, old raids, and old quests to get their favorite-looking items. Transmog is a cosmetic which every player desires and will pay gold for, so as such it can be a very effective way to suck out gold from the realm.
The second issue is quite self-explanatory. Two years ago you gave out random Christmas rewards, ranging from pets through vanity items to mounts. As I mentioned above, I don't give a crap about cosmetics, so guess what happened when I got my Spectral Tiger... Yeah, I sold it within 15 minutes for a gold cap and got settled on that realm for life (read: until Moltdown). Now, this wouldn't have happened if the tiger was soulbound, but it wasn't. So if those non-obtainable items are not soulbound (again, I'm stressing on non-obtainable), imagine how much gold people will be paying for them.
2) The gold takeout, although arguably effective, is a very extreme measure, by all means. You may think that gold takeout directly decreases the amount of gold in circulation in the server, thus indirectly reducing prices, which makes sense totally. But by reducing the amount of available money, demand will also decrease as players won't have purchasing power. Read more about this here. The gold takeout is like a severe punishment to players for making gold and if the takeout is a percentage (I guess it will be, as that's the most logical), then the more gold people make and save, the more they'll be punished for it. Additionally, there is a very easy way of offsetting losses from gold takeout - investments. Prior to a gold takeout a smart player can spend most of his gold, leaving just enough for current expenses, on materials such as orbs, titansteel, crystals, leather etc. He can then stock these materials in the bank and wait for the prices to go up again and sell them back to return his gold.
So what other ways are there?
1) A classic approach to reducing money in circulation is government bonds (or server bonds in our case). You can see server bonds for a WoW server as the donations we're doing (Kind of. Server "shares" would be more appropriate, as money from shares doesn't return, unlike bonds). Now, here's the idea: currently, account tools cost either donation points or vote points. And while vote points are important (are they, really? I mean we're not in any server list), you could add gold as an option for things such as character re-customization or re-name. Leave the voteshop and coinshop as they are with their items, but allow players to spend gold for some of the things. Remember the transmog option, too.
2) Increase fees, such as AH commissions and taxi fees (the taxis in Northrend, especially in Dalaran), and increase prices on high-end products, such as fast fly mounts and 80lvl reagents. The game has no other actual taxation, apart from these instruments, so a logical approach would be to increase these. AH commissions, for example, differ between Steamwheedle auctions and capital city auctions and they can be raised to tax money for income. Of course, there are also negative effects - this will push players away from using the AH and drive them towards the usual "Trade", which cannot be taxed (or can it?). Read more here about reducing money in an MMO.
This is what I had to say regarding the issue. As people play the game, farm mats, grind daily quests, and sell BoE items, inflation will occur. That is something normal and it is a signal of a well-running economy. The problem is when hyperinflation happens and we reach a point where the Raging Behemoth shoulders or the BQL necklace sell for a gold cap on the AH, like on Ragnaros shortly after ICC release. When supply is low and demand is high, the prices soar and hyperinflation occurs. Soon all it took on Ragnaros to be rich was to do an ICC rep farm and reserve the BoEs. Of course, over time the amount of BoEs increased, as a result from people gearing up and more easily clearing ICC, but by that time the damage had already been done.
I hope that we can have a civilized discussion with people who actually know economics and have realistic ideas which can be implemented in an MMO. :)
